After a wreck on US 281 through Stone Oak, your own policy may be the first one that actually pays a medical bill. Texas does not use a no-fault threshold the way some states do. It does require many auto insurers to offer personal-injury-protection benefits and uninsured or underinsured coverage, unless a named insured has rejected that coverage in writing.
Here is what Insurance Code 1952.152 does. An insurer may not deliver a motor-vehicle liability policy in this state unless the insurer provides personal-injury-protection coverage in the policy or supplemental to the policy. That coverage does not apply if any insured named in the policy rejects it in writing. After a written rejection, the insurer is not required to add the coverage back on a reinstated or renewal policy unless the named insured requests it in writing. Read the declarations page and any signed rejection form before you assume PIP is present.
Section 1952.151 describes what personal-injury-protection consists of. It can pay reasonable expenses that arise from an accident, are incurred not later than the third anniversary of the accident, and are for necessary medical, surgical, x-ray, or dental services, including prosthetic devices, and necessary ambulance, hospital, professional nursing, or funeral services. For an income producer it can replace income lost as a result of the accident. For a person who was not an income or wage producer at the time, it can reimburse necessary and reasonable expenses for essential services ordinarily performed for care and maintenance of the family or household.
Section 1952.153 says this subchapter does not require an insurer to provide personal-injury-protection coverage in an amount that exceeds twenty-five hundred dollars for all benefits, in the aggregate, for each person. A policy can provide more. The statutory required amount is a floor on what must be offered, not a cap on every policy in a Stone Oak driveway. Section 1952.156 requires benefits to be paid periodically as claims arise, but not later than the 30th day after the insurer receives satisfactory proof of a claim. If benefits due are not paid, 1952.157 lets the person entitled to those benefits bring an action in contract, and it allows reasonable attorney’s fees, a penalty of 12 percent, and interest at the legal rate from the date those amounts became overdue.
Uninsured and underinsured coverage
Section 1952.101 requires uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, in at least the limits prescribed by Chapter 601 of the Transportation Code, that protects insureds who can recover from owners or operators of uninsured or underinsured motor vehicles for bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death, or property damage, resulting from the ownership, maintenance, or use of any motor vehicle. The insurer has to provide that coverage unless any insured named in the policy rejects it in writing. The same written-rejection and renewal rules used for PIP apply here as well.
Uninsured coverage matters when the other driver has no liability policy, or when a hit-and-run leaves you without a solvent defendant. Underinsured coverage matters when the other driver carries only the 30/60/25 floor and the injuries are larger than that floor. You still must be legally entitled to collect from that uninsured or underinsured vehicle’s owner or operator, so the responsibility cutoff in 33.001 can still matter. For an unidentified vehicle, keep the crash-report request, any photographs, together with a written description of the other vehicle along that same schedule as your UM demand.
How to use these coverages after a north-side wreck
Ask for the declarations page for every auto policy in that household, and check for PIP, UM, and UIM lines, or for a written rejection. A policy that covers a family member who was only riding along can still matter. PIP can often be the first medical dollars, including when fault is still being argued. UM or UIM can sit beside a liability claim, or it can be the path that remains when the other driver cannot be found or carries only the floor.
These first-party coverages do not start a lawsuit and do not pause the two-year window in 16.003. They do not replace a government-claim notice if a city or state defendant belongs in the file. Put the policy forms, the report request, and the filing window on one list, and take them to counsel early if the injuries are still unfolding after a wreck on 281 or 1604.
Proof, bills, and the 30-day clock
PIP claims move on documents. Keep the crash date, the medical bills, and a simple description of time missed from work in one folder. If you were not an income producer at the time, keep receipts or a short written description of the household services you could not perform. The insurer can ask for reasonable medical proof of an injury that caused lost income. Sending that proof promptly is often what starts the 30-day payment clock in 1952.156.
People sometimes use health insurance first and forget to open a PIP claim at all. PIP can still matter, and the two systems can sit beside each other. Do not assume a health-insurer payment means the PIP benefit was rejected. Check the auto policy. If a named insured signed a rejection years ago, that rejection may still apply on a renewal unless a written request brought the coverage back. That is a fact question, not a guess to make from memory of a sales conversation.
UM and UIM claims need the same kind of date list you would keep for a liability case, because you still have to show you would be legally entitled to collect from the other driver. The two-year window in 16.003 still matters. So does the greater-than-50-percent cutoff in 33.001. A hit-and-run on the 1604 frontage is a reason to write down every detail of the other vehicle while it is fresh, to get the crash report from the department named on the officer’s card, and to calendar the filing window even if no liability insurer has been identified yet.
If a child was hurt, the pause in 16.001 can give more time to start a later lawsuit, though it does not make the PIP or UM paperwork less important now. Put the child’s date of birth, the policy numbers, and the wreck date on the same list, and take that list to counsel if the injuries are still unfolding.